Hindustantimes
War-injured to get maximum pension?
HT Correspondent.
NEW DELHI: The Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has come to
the help of war-injured soldiers and directed the government
to consider a maximum of the pay scale for an officer while
fixing his war injury pension.The tribunal headed by Justice
A.K. Mathur also advised the government not to differentiate
between a short service commissioned officer and a
permanent officer while granting death-cum-retirement
gratuity (DCRG).The tribunal accepted the plea of the
petitioner Disabled War Veterans and held: "We strongly
feel that it is a matter which requires a serious consideration
of the Government that a person whose career has been
sacrificed for safeguarding the Indian border and he is to be
treated in such a poor way that he is being paid war pension
on the basis of minimum of the scale of that rank. Therefore,
looking yeoman service rendered by incumbent, he should be
given a fair treatment."Appearing for the petitioner, advocate
Aiswarya Bhatti criticised the present government practice
and said a war injury cut short an officer's service, forcing
him to retire permanently. Therefore, she said, it would be
harsh and unfair to the soldier if his maximum pay scale
were not considered for determining the amount of war injury
pension.Observing that the discrimination on the basis of an
officer's service violated Article 14 of the Constitution, the
tribunal added: "Once the Short Service Commission officers
and the Permanent Service Commission officers fight on the
border shoulder to shoulder, they form same class and no
further distinction can be made... and if unfortunately both
of them receive an injury and they are disabled then no
distinction can be made in payment of DCRG."